Yosemite Blog

If you’re headed up Yosemite way today make sure to carry your chains. This weekend’s winter storm warning remains in effect with snow expected.

National Weather Service: “Snow advisory remains in effect through 10pm pdt this evening for the Southern Sierra Nevada north of Kern county.”

Quite a few people have heard of Stephen Mather and most seem to have an acquaintance with the name, but few remember who he was or what he did.

Stephen Mather was the first Director of the National Park Service. Mather, like most people, was quite taken with the national park but felt there wasn’t enough being done to protect them. A successful marketing executive (he created the 20 Mule Team logo still found on boxes of Borax today), Mather employed his skills to lobby for the creation of a governing body that would oversee the national parks and protect them from those who sought to pillage and plunder their riches.

Sierra Club: In 1914, Mather observed the deteriorating conditions in several National Parks, and wrote a letter of protest to Washington. Soon he received a reply from Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, a former classmate of Mather’s from the University of California. Lane responded, “Dear Steve, If you don’t like the way the parks are being run, come on down to Washington and run them yourself.”

Mather was strongly active in the Sierra Club having been influenced by the likes of Muir and LeConte and was appointed as honorary vice president of the Sierra Club in 1916.

For more on Stephen Mather you can check out the Sierra Club, the National Park Service or the National Wildlife Federation.

One of my photos that will probably end up in the book, The Ahwahnee lodge was commissioned by Steven Mather, first director of the National Park Service.

Everyone knows the Ahwahnee. It’s been in books, movies, and there’s even songs written about it. It’s a beautiful hotel meant to stand the test of time.

The ‘grand dame’ of Yosemite Hotels, the Ahwahnee sits quietly tucked away along the edge of a small meadow on the eastern end of Yosemite Valley just under Royal Arches. In fact, it’s so close to some of the more major climbing routes that climber/adventurer/photographer Galen Rowell would often have steak dinner at the Ahwahnee after a climb.

Yosemite Association: “From its conception in the 1920s, the Ahwahnee was envisioned as a jewel to attract visitors to one of the most beautiful places on earth. The National Park Service, formed in 1916, was seeking additional federal funding in those early years to develop its park system.

Rapid growth in automobile travel, coupled with plans to build the first all-weather highway from Merced to Yosemite Valley, which opened in 1926, inspired park service director Stephen Mather to propose construction of a luxury hotel to attract influential people to the park.

“Scenery is a hollow enjoyment to a tourist who sets out in the morning after an indigestible breakfast and a fitful sleep on an impossible bed,” Mather once said. “

A little known fact is that the Ahwahnee is actually made of granite, steel, and concrete. The redwood pieces are really concrete ingeniously poured into molds and died to have the look of real wood.

I came across this wonderful painting while browsing the internet today and I had to share it. Patricia Wagner has painted some truly breathtaking art and this one, “Glory of Yosemite“, is no exception. Beautiful, vibrant, full of life. A fantastic piece. Patricia describes the painting in her own words as:

…one of my favorite paintings.
Only God could paint the earth with ever-changing patterns from moment to moment as the sun moves in splendor across the open heavens.

In “Glory of Yosemite” I’ve tried to portray the sensation of radiant clouds hovering over Half Dome below. Heaven touches earth in this scene from Yosemite National Park

If you’re interested in Patricia’s work I urge you to check out her online gallery or visit her eBay gallery where you can buy one for for yourself.

Thank you again for letting me share your painting, Patricia.

Yosemite Theater, known for it’s informative and fun productions, is kicking off the 2005 year with a week of great shows.

On Sunday May 8th Park Ranger Shelton Johnson will kick things off with his show, “Yosemite Through The Eyes Of A Buffalo Soldier, 1904″.

Lee Stetson reprise his famous role as John Muir. Monday Stetson will present “Conversation With A Tramp”, Wednesday “Stikeen”, and Friday “The Spirit of John Muir”.

On Tuesday and Thursday Connie Stetson will perform “Sarah Hawkins Contemplates A Fourth Marriage.”

All shows are at 8pm in the Visitors Center Theater. Adults are $8 per person while children 12 years and under are just $4.